The Victorian government will include benzodiazepines and so-called 'Z class' sleeping pills in its $30 million real-time prescription monitoring system expected to be rolled out next year, with codeine to be added at a later stage.
On a day that the federal government announced it would chip in $16 million to see the long-delayed Electronic Reporting and Recording of Controlled Drugs (ERRCD) finally rolled out nationally, Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy announced that her state would take a harder line on high-risk prescription drugs, including some Schedule 4 drugs in the scheme and making it mandatory for doctors and pharmacists.
The national system has been designed only to monitor Schedule 8 drugs of addiction such as opioids, despite calls for certain S4 drugs and codeine, which is shortly to be rescheduled to S4 prescription-only from S3 pharmacy-only, to also be monitored.
